Mixed media: Intervention in Africa

The continuing humanitarian crisis in Sudan's Darfur region has raised the possibility of international military action


CALLS FOR ACTION

AMERICAN EDITORIAL: The West should wait no longer for Sudan to solve a problem whose toll is rising, no matter what it's called. The UN Security Council must act quickly to set an urgent deadline, threaten sanctions, and prepare for a possible UN-led military intervention. - Christian Science Monitor

ARAB WEBSITE: The Sudanese Government is still arguing that it is caught in a long-running civil war and no outside powers should seek to meddle in its internal affairs. Unfortunately its unhelpful responses to successive diplomatic interventions have strengthened the hand of countries that wish to intervene. It will not be long before no one is interested in hearing Khartoum's side of events and the focus will be entirely on alleviating the humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding for over a million black Sudanese citizens. - Arab News, Saudi Arabia

LEBANESE VIEW: There are a number of festering wounds marking the collective body of the Arab world, and not all of them can conveniently be attributed to the aggression of outsiders ...

While the United States is considering formally labelling the Darfur crisis as a genocide in progress, the world - the world beyond the Arab world that is - is justified in asking the following question: "What are the Arabs doing about this atrocity in their own back yard?" - Daily Star, Lebanon

INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS' WEBSITE: I understand the geopolitics and political exigencies of the various parties but I ultimately do not care much about the politics that are now used as an excuse for inaction and standing by. At this point I care merely that a rogue band of heavily armed marauders supported by the government is causing the death of possibly up to a million people who are struggling to survive under inhumane conditions in overcrowded refugee camps at the border of Chad, watching their children and each other die, minute by minute. I care about the child in her mother's arms and not about political leaders' excuses for not intervening. - Contributor to Passion of the Present website

BRITISH CALL: We must back calls by Human Rights Watch for Sudan that officials implicated in supporting the militias be added to the UN sanctions list. Plans should also be put in place for the international monitoring of the disarmament of militia groups and the establishment of an international commission of inquiry into the abuses by all parties. - Observer editorial, London

THREATS REJECTED

EUROPEAN WEBSITE: Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said international "threats" would not help solve the humanitarian crisis in his country's war-torn Darfur region and urged the European Union to be "balanced" in its statements. "We don't need any threats or sanctions," he told the press after talks with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul. - EUbusiness website

UGANDA EDITORIAL: It is obvious that the militia are an amorphous group. How would sanctions apply to a band with such indeterminate structure and membership? It is a waste of effort and valuable time to be considering sanctions. What Darfur needs now is emergency help ... The Security Council should help broker a ceasefire and press Khartoum to address the grievances that led to the uprising. - New Vision, Kampala

AMERICAN SATIRE: Da, I can see the Le Monde editorials now, comrades: "Bush to blame for millions of children dead in Sudan ... Unable to get food or medicine, due to crippling, genocidal, American-backed sanctions against the already-troubled people of the Sudan, which also has significant resources coveted by Halliburton, and lies just south of Egypt, from which American and Israeli bases could encircle Cairo, the historic heart of the Muslim world, now victimised by yet another Amerikan invasion ... " - Diktat by Commissar on The Politburo Diktat American blog

SOLIDARITY WITH SUDAN: Libya warned that a non-African military deployment in Darfur to combat the humanitarian crisis ... could provoke an "explosive" situation. The crisis in Darfur is "very dangerous", Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Mohammed Shalgham told a press conference, while criticising what he called "the US and Western escalation" in calling for foreign intervention. "We reject any foreign military presence down there, apart from within the framework of the African Union [AU]," Shalgham said. - Sudan Tribune